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The above symptom is associated with, but not limited to, the following systems:

ThinkCentre

ThinkStation

ThinkServer

ThinkPad

Idea Tablet

IdeaPad

IdeaCentre

Applies To:

All Operating Systems

Microsoft Windows 8

Microsoft Windows 8 Pro

Additional Information:

Quick Access Menu:

There are two ways to pull up the Windows Quick Access Menu, which contains a large amount of useful and important features, is to either click the Windows Key and the X key on their keyboard, or to right-click on the lower left corner of the screen.

This menu provides access to useful features such as the Power Options, Event Viewer, Device Manager, Command Prompt, Task Manager, Control Panel, and the Run function.

Using the Search function:

To use the Search function in Windows 8, have the user click the Windows logo key and the C key on their keyboard. This will pull up the 'Charms Bar' along the right side of the screen. This includes the Search function, The Share function, A quick link back to the Start Menu, the Devices Charm, and the Computer Settings Charm.

Know your hot corners:

The corners on your screen are hot corners and give you access to different Windows features. Below, is a brief explanation of each of these corners.

Bottom Left-hand corner:

The bottom left-hand hot corner of the screen will allow you to access the Start screen, if you are in the Start screen and have the Desktop open, this corner will open the Desktop from the Start screen.

Tip: Right-clicking in the left hand corner will open the power user menu.

Top-left corner of the screen:

Moving the mouse to the top-left corner and then down will display all the apps running on the computer. Clicking and dragging any of these apps to the left or right-hand side of the screen will snap that app to that side of the screen. Each of these open app icons can also be right-clicked to close or snap.

Right-hand side of the screen:

On the full right-hand side of the screen will be given access to the Windows Charms.

Go to Task Manager for Startup items:

You no longer have to run the MSConfig program to change startup items. Startup items now show up in a tab on Task Manager. Simply press Ctrl + Alt + Del and select Task Manager. Click the "More details" tab at the bottom and find the Startup tab at the top.

Start in Safe Mode:

Safe Mode is a great way to get into your system when something will not allow you to start up normally. Troubleshooting becomes necessary when corrupted drivers or files are not loading correctly that prevents a system from functioning. It used to be as easy as pressing F8 when the system starts up, but doing so with Windows 8 will take you to Automatic Repair Mode. The trick to getting back to Safe Mode is to hold down the Shift key and press F8 while booting up.

This takes you to the Recovery mode. Select "advanced options," then "troubleshoot," then the "advanced options" again (there are a lot of advanced options). Select Windows Startup Settings and finally the Restart button. This will reboot the computer and give you the option to boot into Safe Mode.

If you need to get into Safe Mode from within Windows, open the dialog box (the Windows key + R) and type "msconfig" (no quote marks). Select the Boot tab and check the Safe boot box. The system will continually boot into Safe Mode until you go back and uncheck the box.